When We Were Young
by Lady Starscream
Summary: Forget Klutch being a blue twit, forget Indy being psychic, forget the events of The Wrong Side of Right. This is before then. Written back in 2004 by a friend of mine and left for me to finish, this is the introduction story for Indy and Klutch.
1. Chapter 1

This is the original story. How Klutch and Indy started out. This was written by a friend of mine back in 2004. I've put it off for long enough, so now I'm putting it up. She started the fic, and left the story for me to finish.

I just re-wrote some of the stuff so it sounded a bit more transformerish instead of human-ish.

Later in 2005 she gave me the fancharacters for good. Klutch, Indy, and Ribar originally belonged to her.

Forget the Rp, forget Klutch being a jerk and Indy being a psychic. This is way before then. Happens around late 85 early 1986, right before 3rd War happened, and about a year and a half before either met Jade or any of the Kintari. The only fanchars you will see here are the ones mentioned above.

Indy is just a teenager in this, as is Klutch. Think of her as a kind of female Hot Rod, in a way, but with a smart mouth. LOL (she's matured a bit since this was written. eheh.

**Warning:** spoilers ahead.

if you've read the RP fics, specifically "the Wrong side of Right", you're gonna be very suprised in a couple chapters.

There's gonna be some stuff in here that will make a lot of sense. I'd suggest reading the Wrong Side of Right, at least the scenes with Indy reading minds and Klutch getting the Decepticons involved (chapter 30, I think)

enjoy!

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Prologue

It was late morning, when the cherry-red 1986 Corvette Indy raced out of the Ark's main entrance. Indy had been discovered in one of the Ark's storage holds in stasis, after secretly stowing away before they left Cybertron. After a stern lecture about the danger of their mission from the Autobot commander, a few of the crew had been assigned to train the youth on how to fight. Unfortunately, she turned out to be willfull, stubborn, and, well, more like a human teenager than a Cybertronian.

Therefore, Optimus Prime, the Autobot commander, had decided to send her to a remote site in Britain, to meet with a transformer by the name of Ribar, who had a sort of training/ research facility there. It was more geared towards the assimilation of Cybertronian technology into human uses currently, because of the lack of students. But Ribar, who had been a teacher at the academy on Cybertron before the war, was more than happy to help. In fact, he had mentioned he had another student allready. A young mech by the name of Klutch.

"The area has a more varied terrain than here in Oregon. I feel it would be more suitable for your..." The Autobot leader chose his words carefully before finishing.

"specific abilities"

The red femme scowled, but suddenly the thought popped into her mind "Hey, a road trip!"

So, she packed the few personal items she would need into her subspace pockets, and met with Skyfire, who would fly her to the meeting place in Britain...

-----------------

One:

Skyfire landed just west of the area they would meet Ribar, who was returning from a recon mission in Germany. "I can take it from here." she told the giant red-and-white jet.

"But Prime told me to..." but Indy cut him off

"I'm a big girl, okay; I can take care of myself!" she retorted.

Skyfire just sighed and said "Allright, but just call me if you get into any trouble, okay?"

Indy rolled her optics. As if it wasn't bad enough Prime was treating her like a child; Now this big guy was, too. "Don't worry I will." She said as she transformed and zoomed away. About fifty miles away from where Skyfire had dropped her off, she was still thinking to herself about how Skyfire had let her her go off on her own, without giving her the same type of "you're just an inexperienced youngster" routine (thank the stars). It was bad enough several of the Autobots looked down on her for being a female. Sunstreaker had practically laughed at her when she said she wanted to fight with them, and mentioned something about femmes not being as good as the rest of them. At least Ironhide had taken the time to try to teach her a few things.

The red Corvette was suddenly jerked out of her thoughts by the car wreck up ahead. The first car, a gold Ford Taurus had been turned over on it's side, the front windshield smashed into a million bits. The entire front right side had been crushed like an accordion against the railing it had slammed into. The other car, which had most likely been behind it, had turned sideways, as though the driver had tried to swerve to miss it, but slid on the slippery roads.

The Navy Blue Corsica was laying on it's roof, as though it had flipped from the impact, the right side of the car indented from the collision. It didn't look like whoever was involved was in very good condition; And if there was anybody stuck in the car she could earn a few extra points by helping the people or person by saving them. "I'll show them how useless I am!" she scoffed, as she cruised up to investigate.

But when she got there no one was to be found. Thinking maybe the humans involved had allready been rescued, she continued on to the meeting place.

She drove up the winding road that took her out into the foothills, and up around a wooded area. The road turned to the right, and she thought "finally." The large grey-white building stood out against the green hilly landcape, fencing running around it's perimiter, and two human gaurds stood at the front gate. Indy's thoughts wandered as she sped towards the distant building about a mile away.

She had asked about the other student. All she got was that Klutch had been piloting a ship that crashed in the barren outback of Australia, and he had wandered around for days without energy, and finally got his homing beacon to work. That was when Ribar and his team picked up on the locator beacon, and went to find him. The only thing was, they never found his ship...

The red concept car pulled up to the gate, and gave the human her name, who checked it, then pressed the button to roll back the barbed-wire-topped fence. Indy wondered if it was a training center or military installation. Well, she'd heard something about it being a weapon research facility, working with the humans and their weapon designers. She guessed Ribar had taken on a new job description since he left Cybertron and his teaching job.

She was met at the door by a couple humans, who led her down the large transformer-sized halls to her room. "Oh, this is nice." she scowled. She looked around. "Not even a vid screen or a stereo." she frowned. It had a window, a table with two chairs, a recharge plate, and that was about it. She plunked her storage box of stuff onto the recharge berth and glanced around again. They didn't even have energon cubes like the Autobots at the Ark did! She picked up the tiny cord coiled up at one corner of the recharge plat.

"Nah..." her optics widened. "Oh great. just great!" a...power cord?" She tossed it back at the corner of the 'bed'. "Great. I've died and got to **prison**!"

she looked over her 'schedule'

Up at 6am, asleep at midnight. Training exersises, target practice, hand-to-hand combat training... Indy facepalmed.

how the heck am I supposed to learn to fight when my only opponent is a guy? I'll get my skidplate beat every round!" she thought. She opened the locker to put her stuff in, and noticed the datapad inside. "What's this?" she took it out, turning it on.

"Meet me out at the gravel pit, Dayton, Ohio. In the U.S.  
Ribar"

"duh. I know where Ohio is. Dork." Indy snorted and tossed the datapad back in the locker. "Great another human city." she grumbled. She was allready in Euroupe.

Why the SLAG didn't he tell her to meet him in Ohio BEFORE she left the Ark? She looked out the window, and the wall comm came on, a male voice stating. "Indy, Ribar left a message with us to give you. He wants you to fly out to the East coast of the united States. We made arrangements with the Americans that you could use it for a temporary training ground"

"I know, I know, Ohio." Indy cut him off.

There was half a minute of silence, then the voice spoke again. "You'd better get going, then. I'll let him know you're on your way. and make sure you check out." the comm clicked off.

Indy glared at the wall comm. This day was not going well. She sighed. "Screw checking in and checking out. I can leave when I want! Especially when Ribar knows I'm coming!" She went over to the window. Sure enough, it slid open. And no screen or anything. Indy smirked and looked over her shoulder. She stepped out and slid it closed. She ran a few steps and transformed, heading out behind the facility torwards the steeper hills. She accelerated a little, and put out her wings.

She had almost forgot about those. Heh, a flying car. Nobody would have believed that had they seen it. A flying Corvette. She snickered and headed for the cloudline...

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Reviews are nice! (points to button)

;-)


	2. Chapter 2

Author's notes: no spoilers just yet, but I'm almost there...

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Chapter Two:

She reached the co-ordinates, and settled for landing on a strip of highway called route 4, or something like that. The other cars on the road honked at her quite rudely as she landed, and she had to swerve over to the right shoulder not to get hit. "Well _excuse me_, road hog." She snapped.

She transformed and looked to her right. "Well, at least I'm close to it." she headed down the steep embankment, and onto the old four-wheeler track. She tried transforming, but the trail was WAY too bumpy. And rocky.

"Grrr.." Indy finally transformed and stomped down the trail, growing more and more displeased and more and more annoyed by the astrosecond. She rounded a flump of trees, and looked towards where the ground sloped into the bowl of the old gravel pit.

There was Ribar, and a blue mech. Indy stopped for a second, taking in the sleek blue and silver sportscar alt.mode, and the number 6 emblazoned on the hood, which rested on the blue-opticed mech's chest, between his broad shoulders.

She couldn't quite pick up on what they were saying, some of it because of the blue mech, Klutch, she assumed, had a thick Australian accent.

"...hope she gets 'ere soon.' The mech checked his chronometer.

It was about that time Indy realized she was expected. So she walked down the hill to meet them.

She tried to keep her optics on where she was going, but wound up glancing at him out of the corner of her optic. "Man this Autobot is cute; How am I supposed to train with him, and be in competition with him at the same time?". she thought.

Not that she was gonna let him know she thought he was attractive or anything. She walked up to the pair, and said "why did you have me meet here, and why do I have to train with someone I don't know?"

Her trainer, Ribar, had a look on his face, probably thinking about inexperienced kids; Although Klutch had been living at the training center for the last two years, and did have a little more experience than her.

Indy folded her arms and gave the 'teacher' an arrogant look. And when the other transformer, Kutch walked up she muttered "And why do I have to train with a dude I don't even know. I mean, this is a loada slag!"

But Klutch heard her; And said: "relax I'm not here to beat you up oah anithing. But ya do need ta learn how to handle sirt' in situations."

"and what's that supposed to mean!?"

Klutch shrugged "I was told you were inexperienced"

"I may be young; But I'm not dumb"

the blue mech resisted the urge to glance at Ribar and read his expression over all of this. But, eh, he was young nad arrogant once, too. They allways had to learn.

Not to say he wasn't still young. Two years was barely a blink of time to a Transformer. He still had things to learn, too.

So why did he get the feeling this was going to be more difficult than he'd expected?

"I'm not judging you. But I may be able to show you a few things ya did'int know"

Indy rolled her optics and looked away, thinking: "why am I getting the feeling that he's new trainer, not Ribar, and not my adversary or my competition?"

She paused, then Ribar by the shoulder and pulled him off to the side, and said "what's going on here? I'm not getting everything am I?"

"No"...said her trainer, and she replied with "what?"

"Look, you have about two weeks to learn everything I've taught Klutch in two years. So... he's gonna help you learn a few things." he glanced over at the blue mech, who had started picking up stones and trying to skim them across the small lake.

"There's a major project being brought over to the center they need my help with. I'm not just a teacher anymore. I'm a scientist, a technician, too." he looked over at the highway. "I talked with Prime, and he's gonna set up a sort of... competition. After you've learned everything here, you'll be pairing off against two of the Autobots in a mock-fight, on a variety of scenarios.. I'm not even supposed to be telling you this." the small dunebuggy glanced back at the highway in the distance.

"If you don't pass these training excersises, Prime is going to send you back to Cybertron"

..."but...but...but.

"no buts; Indy!"...said her trainer.."you and Klutch will go to Oregon, and battle. It will only show how strong you are.

Oh, alright "..Indy finally replied. even though she had her doubts. But she was sure she would show those Autobots how good she _really _ was.

Klutch walked up, a condescending look on his face.. "well we better get to training," he said, looking at the red femme from helmet to boot. Indy noticed this; And replied with: "you know you're not the boss of me right?!!"...but she quickly realised what she had just said.

"Oh my gosh I didn't say that out loud did I?" she admitted.

"Yes you did Indy." he replied, then added with a shrug "but it doesn't hurt my feelings. I know you probly didn't mean it, so why should I care?!" Klutch replied, and walked away. Indy glared after him.

"Tell me again why I have to train with him."

"Indy, you have to be okay with this. we are wasting our time just sitting here talking about something that can be talked about later but right now we need to focus on what it in important." Ribar stated. "you dont have to only get along with him, you have to deal with it and, work as a team, or..." he thought for a second on how he could get her to cooperate. "Or I'm just going to flunk you in this!"he stated. That earned a dagger-edged glare from the red femmecar. It was bad enough she was being threatened with being sent back to Cybertron!

Primus, how she hated that planet! that was why she had snuck aboard the Ark in the first place! Now she had to deal with a strict teacher, and a stuck-up training partner that thought he knew so much more than her.

She let her expression drop into neutrality.

_"fine. play with fire."_ she thought.

She put on her cutest smile, and walked over to the blue mech, who gave her a scrutinizing look.

"Okay Klutch, lets get together. We can be the best of friends." her voice was just dripping with sarcasm.  
"hahahahahahaha **not**!"

She ran back to where Ribar was.

"HEY!"... Klutch took two steps forward, but let his glare drop when he saw Ribar's face.

The Dunebuggy sighed. "I am going to leave. and you two better get along. Or neither of you will become part of Autobot's team. And I know you want to be apart of that right?!..."

"So if I fail, you're gonna send Klutch back to Cybertron, too?" Indy angled her head to one side, periwinkle blue optics twinkling.

"No. That means he will stay at the center with me, and you..." Ribar pointed at the red femme "Will be sent back to your home planet." he raised his voice slightly, so he was loud and clear. "So get it throught you processor!"

Indy looked at the ground. She really didn't want to go back. but stupid people yelling at her, and running around, and all these rules... and then there was Mr. _I'm-better-than-you_.

She glanced over at Klutch, who still had a neutral expression, as though agreeing completely with his teacher. Or he just didn't care, one of the two.

"I guess I have no choice... come on Klutch lets go." Indy plodded past him towards where the old four-wheeler/ motorbike track leveled out towards the back section.

Klutch glanced at his teacher and nodded, then followed.

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The whole time they were training, all she could think about was how cute he was (or whenever he said something how much she wanted him to go away) but she had no choice.

"So, Indy, how bout you show me what you do best; and then I'll show u what I do best? Then we can be done for the day." Klutch suggested.

Indy glanced at the horizon. tHe sun was allready setting, and they still had to get home. She idly wondered how Klutch got here, but one of the cargo jets at their base had probably given him a lift.

"No, I am not going to show you. Last time I did that, someone stole it from me, and used it against me. And I had to learn how to top my own moves." she said. "I should have known Ironhide would do that." she grumbled.

"Youve trained with and battled against Ironhide?!"Klutch looked suprised

"Ya, he showed me a few things." Indy raised her chin proudly.

Actually, he had called her a spoiled brat who didn't listen and thought she was 'all that and a bag of microchips', but she wouldn't tell Klutch that.

"but, I didn't get very far" she shrugged "he's more professional then me of course, and wiser, and all that, so I had no chance at the beginning. But I dont want to do my best move. You can wait to see that when we battle. You'll get a kick out of it!.." she grinned.

"Ok we better get going I will see you tomorrow." he started up a hill. "Oh, and do me a favor, stay out of trouble." He reached the top, and called back

"Oh yea, an' don't stop at any car wrecks this time. no one is ever in there they always leave before anyone sees them."

"how did you know about that?"Indy replied, and jogged to try and catch up.

Klutch just started to walk away and shrugged his shoulders. "Indy picked up her things and followed, grumbling. The got to the center of the valley and sure enough, there was the C130 cargo jet, engines idling, waiting for them. She took a seat at the very back (pointedly away from Klutch), and mumbled some things that she didnt want anyone else to hear.

The jet landed, and they walked out. The General who was in charge of the base walked up to meet with them. "I thought you were supposed to check out." he grumbled accusingly. Klutch perked an optic ridge at her. Ribar stepped forward. "It's all right general, she's new. I'm sure she'll get the gist of the way things work around here soon enough." he shot the red car a warning look. "Won't you, young lady?" Indy almost snapped back with a smart remark, but caught herself. "Yes."

"Sir." she added on the end. She hated having to call people that. It usually meant they were better than you if you had to call them that. She snatched up her supplies and blaster and stalked inside. She slammed the door to her sparse quarters when she got inside and flopped down on the hard metal surface of the recharge plate.

"Ow." she got up.

"Would it kill them to get some pillows?" she rolled over, and reached for the cord.

She eyed the ceiling. "Why me? what did I ever do to deserve this."

she flopped her head back down and plugged in the power cord.

Pretty soon, she drifted off to sleep.

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Sigh, poor thing. Will she ever get used to boot camp? or Klutch? actually, she thinks he's a jerk, but also thinks he's cute. Confusing, isn't it? heh. Leave me a review and I'll put the next chapter up for ya.


	3. Chapter 3

Indy woke up to the alarm beeping in her audio, rolled over, hit the button, rolled out of bed. It had been the same thing every night. the 'power cord' recharge wasn't as pleasant as drinking energon, but it gave her adequate energy for the day. She mumbled as she headed to her locker across the room. When she opened it, she found a datapad on top of her pile of stuff, like the first one. She turned it on, and a text message appeared on it's screen. Only this one was far different from the first. "We have your teacher. come alone." and a set of coordinates. Indy glanced around. Should she report it to the base authorities? the coordinates were to a nearby lake. She could call for backup once she got there...

She was supposed to work with Klutch, on everything, though. She rolled her optics. He thoguht she was about as useless as a drone. She couldn't leave without signing out, or telling someone, though.

Then again...

"Hmmpf. I'll show him how useless I am." she tossed the datapad on her recharge plate and grabbed her practice rifle from her locker. she glanced back at her door before going out the window, and heading for the lake.

About fifteen minutes later, she reached her destination. She transformed, and snuck around the edge of the lake. Sure enough, there was a tiny island set out in the center. And a yellow object reflecting the light. she un-subspaced her weapon and flew over to it. The island was only about 50 feet or so all around, and had a clump of trees in the middle. And there was ribar. Tied up, and it looked like he had been knocked out. She squatted down, noticing the scrapes and dents in his armor. She glanced around quickly, but didn't see anyone. She gently shook his shoulder, waking him with a start. He struggled for a second before realizing who she was, then calmed down.

She plucked off the vocoder gag, a small box attatched to the front of his neckplating, and glanced around again. They were out in the middle of the lake, and could be an easy target for anyone. "Who did this?" she asked. "You're not Klutch. That's who they're after." he half-whispered. "Who? who's 'they'? she asked. "I can't tell you that..." The sound of distant helicopters echoed around.

Indy glanced up.

"We have to get you out of here." she started to undo the chains holding him in place.

"No, you have to get out of here before..." The yellow Ribar wiggled to try to free himself quicker.

BLAM!"

A shot hit the top of the tree they were under. Indy looked over at where it had come from as the chains fell off.

"I'll be right back." she flew into the air. Ribar started to protest "Wait, you can't..." but it was too late.

She landed near where the weaponfire had come from, but there was no sign of anyone having been there. Not even a footprint. She quickly skirted around the edge of the lake, carefully searching the area. The main helicopter landed, the other following after it. The first twelve soldiers gaurded the general area, while the second set went further to search for Decepticons. Klutch squinted at the bright sunlight, and caugh sight of something yellow on the island. "Over there!" he yelled, and ran back to the helicopter, taking six soldiers with him.

The copter flew over to the island, and Klutch jumped out. The six humans threw down lines and came down after him.

The first thing the blue car noticed was the chains had been loosened, and the gag-box laying nearby the facedown mech. He glanced around. She was here. But where? He hoped the Decepticons hadn't gotten her. That meant he'd have to go off and save her.

Klutch knelt next to Ribar, noticing the glowing yellowish liquid. He carefully grasped the Autobot's shoulder and rolled him over. A hole had been torn through his armor, leaking a steady stream of energon. He looked away quickly. Whoever had done this was after him. And they had used Ribar to get to him.

He double-checked to make sure his teacher was still functional. He was, but barely.  
Klutch bit his lower lip component and narrowed his optics. He looked over at the rocky, treeless western ridge of the lake. "Let's get him out of here." One soldier yelled to the others. He didn't hear the rest. He walked around to the other side of the island.

Why were the ecepticons after him, though? Maybe it wasn't him. Maybe there was a reason they were after Ribar. Maybe they wanted to shut down the Center by getting rid of it's director. There had to be some logical explanation to all this. He jumped across to the nearby rocky, and made it back to shore. He glanced back at where the soldiers he had brought with him were lifting up the platform with Ribar on it, and headed for home. He pulled out his rifle and started to walk.

FLASHBACK::

The ship had come down over the Australian plains, hit hard, and gone off the radar. Ribar packed his field gear and stowed it safely in subspace. They didn't get many crashed ships anymore. although this one had an all-to familiar energy signature.  
Decepticons.

The yellow colored dunebuggy carefully made his way up to the smoking craft, eying the purple sigil on it's side... the impact had ripped a huge hole in the side.. Ribar carefull looked inside, shining his gunscope light into the darkened cockpit. Wires sparked smasmatically, giving a hint of light here and there. He heard something move, and took an abrupt step back. "Hello? is... is anyone alive?" he stuck his head inside, aiming his gun at the back of the small area.

A soft whimper sounded.

He crouched under the broken hull, and into the small ship. At the back, he could make out some bits of metal, and an open hatch. "The pilot must have bailed out in an escape pod." he thought. The whimper sounded louder. More sparks sprayed from an overhead access panel, briefly illuminating th area, then throwing it into darkness again. But it was enough to make out a small blue dot. He shined his flashlight on it, and caught a glimpse of blue metal, and glowing liquid. "energon?" he thought.

"Someone's still in here!" he shouted to the rescue party. He lifted the metal where part of the back hull had collapsed,, and hauled up a heavy peice of material, tipping it the other direction to reveal a small blue figure. The sparkling was huddled against the corner, trapped under a mess of wires and sparking cicuitry, along with whatever other guts the ship had that had been ripped open by the crash. The one optic that was still lit flickered momentarily, and faded as the sparkling went into stasis lock. Ribar hurriedly batted away more wires and metal, revealing a badly damaged blue mech, with what seemed to be no visible alt. mode.

His arm had been ripped off by a peice of metal that had imbedded itself in the wall behind him, a couple of the wires in his arm pulled taught and pinned along with the peice of plating. His chest looked like it had been crushed, and there was a huge dent in the side of his helmet. His lower half was still buried, most likely also crushed under the weight of the metal pinning him. He hurriedly dug him out, and as much as he hated to do it, had to cut the wires of the trapped arm to get him free. "Hey, stay alive, okay?" he pulled out a tarp and wrapped it around the bleeding sparkling, gathering up the severed limb and bits of armor, and ran back outside where the covered transport truck and rescue team was waiting...

In the hangar bay, the general circled the peices of the ruined craft. They'd had to carefully cut the thing into peices to get it back to the center, but it had a lot of technology they could possibly use in the future. "Good work, Ribar." the general praised, looking up at the yellow Autobot. "Thank you sir, but what about the child?"

"What about him?" the general shrugged. "We've done everything we can for him. Now it's up to him whether he survives or not." he said impassively, eyes greedily roaming the alien design before him. "Besides." the grey-haired mand turned to face Ribar.

"You said he was a Decepticon, did you not"  
Ribar nodded. "I did."

"Then, what does it matter if he survives or not? It'll just be one more Decepticon to give us hell. If i'd had my way, he'd have allready been deactivated." he shrugged again. "but sir, he's just a child." Ribar protested.

"Just a Decepticon child, you mean. " the General replied gruffly. He turned to fully face the Autobot. "look, son, I'm not gonna go blowin smoke up your tailpipe, but if there's one less Decepticon in this world, child or not, it's better to the entire human race. The only reason why I kept that... thing around, was because you insisted on keeping it. So what more do you want from me?" when no anwer came, he finished with "If it dies, let it!" And with that, the general walked out, leaving the yellow dunebuggy to himself, and his thoughts. "Not if he doesn't know he's a Decepticon, sir." Ribar replied quietly.

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About 24 hours later, the short mech crept into the modified medical ward, where rescued Cybertronians or refugees were repaired. One of the humans looked up, and scurried over. "How is he? Ribar asked quietly.

"well, the scientists are doing eveything they can for him. But we don't know everything we could about your kind." The man walked over to his desk, and looked over his notes. "The damage was pretty bad, and considering his age..." he looked up. "I'm sorry, I can't tell you anything more." he turned back to looking over the pages half-reading them. "Some of his systems are malfunctioning, and there's parts needing repaired or replaced that we just don't know how to do." the human finally turned and looked at the Autobot, blue eyes softening slightly. "I'm afraid there's nothing more we can do." he finally stated.

"Yes there is." the dunebuggy walked over to the child, who's sleeping face was as peacefull as any Autobot sparkling's. "Maybe..." he turned to look down at the human. "Maybe we could use some of my technology. I mean, I know how to fabricate parts for a grown mechanoid, but we could possibly use some of my smaller components. It could be done"  
"but." the human just didn't want to argue with him. He still knew this child, standing barely above Ribar's knee, would still be too small. He just nodded. "Maybe. But we're going to need a major miracle if we're going to make this happen."

Ribar went to the computer to pull up his own schematics, and the two got to work.

PRESENT MOMENT::

the blue sportscar crept almost stealthily along the treeling. Ribar had been not just his teacher, but also his mentor, his friend.

His creator.

Klutch gritted his teethplates and kept walking. He had to find whoever did this. He just hoped Ribar would be okay.

He silently swore. Why didn't Indy tell him about the note? Did she think she could do everything by herself? If she hadn't come out here alone, Ribar might not have been shot. He was allready in stasis lock when they found him. He was badly damage. He bit back another curse. If she had told them, they could have brought out some soldiers, scouted the area first.  
Caught whoever did it first!!!

He heard a tree rustle, and ducked down into a squatting position, bringing up his rifle to bear on whoever had made the sound.

FLASHBACK::

A full day had gone by, and Ribar and his human assistant realised that this sparkling didn't even have a transformation sequence installed yet. So they figured out a way to redesign his systems, and upgrade the yet nameless sparkling, into a slightly larger body shell and give him an alt. mode.

"Now what can I use?" Ribar leaned over, optics scanning an array of vehicles on the computer screen. The sounds of the television behind it at one of the far tables caught his attention. a race was on. Not fancy cars or anything, just some of the better racecars. A Ferarri, a Porsche, a Corvette, a Lancia and... In last place was a little blue car. "Hey." he called to the group of technicians avidly watching the race. "What kind of car is that? There, in the last place?" he called.

"It's a Lotus." One of them called back.

"No." another corrected. "It's a Lotus Elise Sport."

"That's what I said." the first quipped in reply.

Ribar grinned. "I like it."

The general of the base paced in his office. He didn't like this. That scientist was going to try to save a Decepticon! Sure, it was a child. But even though a baby lion or tiger may be cute, it would still grow up to be a killer. He knew he should have had that... thin destroyed when they first found it! He frowned, and turned on his heel, brisquely walking out.

Ribar hovered over the monitors like a mother hen. They had come this far, now hopefully nothing would go wrong. The human looked up at him, and noticed his paternal expression. "It's almost time." he smiled.

Ribar glanced down, returning the expression. "I know." He looked over his shoulder at the now slightly-larger youth. It would be a couple more exostructural upgrades until the youngster would be full size, but they had to start somewhere. and that somewhere was here. His eyes fell on the youth's chest, where the Decepticon insignia had once lay.

He turned back to the computer and started typing furiously.

"what... What are you doing!?" the human man demanded, almost afraid he would do something wrong and deactivate the spark that lay withing the near-comatose mech's lasercore.

"I forgot something." Ribar gave the human beside him a quick glance of reassurance. "We have to wipe his memory banks, or he'll remember being a Decepticon." his typing halted abruptly as the door opened, and the general came stalking through, and bellowed. "I want that travesty terminated, Ribar!"

The dunebuggy calmly looked over (and down) at the general, and finished typing in the programming. "It's too late. He's allready activated. and I've permanently deleted his memory bank. He won't even remember who he is... was."

The General's face tinged slightly pink with anger, but only gave the now-blue-colored youth a glance of annoyance.

"Are you positive!?"

"Yes."

"Well if he isn't... I'm having him deactivated on the spot." the grey-haired general barked. Ribar only nodded. The general walked over to where they were.

"Turn him on." he commanded.

Ribar swallowed his reply about Cybertronians not being simple machines that one could turn on and off, and the crudeness of such a statement. But then again, he was talking to the general, and not only was he in charge of this military base, but he also hated the life that this yellow Autobot had fought so hard to save.

He typed a few keys more, and hit the enter button. The computer beeped, and the other systems started powering up. Ribar turned his back to the computer, letting his human associate do the final monitoring, and waited.

"Systems... malfunction...memory circuits offline... "

"rebooting..."

"rebooting cancelled..."

"activating systems..."

"fuel pumps...callibration... optical and audio functions..."

The symbols rolled past his offlined optics so fast he could barely make out what they were. Then he decided to avoid it, and online his optics, bringing the ceiling of the room into sharp focus.

his first thoughts were "Where am I?...Who am I?"

Ribar's grin almost split his features. "We did it!" he whooped. He went over to gently take the youth's hand in his own.

The voice came out with a perfect Australian-english accent. "Who...am I?... and who'ere eu?"

Ribar just smiled. "I'm your creator, my name's Ribar."

He helped the child sit up, and the General straightened his posture, clearing his throat. Both mechs looked over.

"I am General Mcentrey, in charge of this base. Are you an autobot?"

Ribar gave him a half-warning look, but the general ignored it. "A-a-autobot?" the youth stammered." He looked to Ribar for an answer. "It's a faction. We're friends of the humans." he replied.

"Oh, then yes, of course!" the blue mech nodded enthusiasctically. "I'm..." he glanced around the room, looking for something to help him figure out a name. His optics fell on an auto-magazine.

"Klutch...I'm Klutch." He looked down at the human, then at Ribar, who smiled and nodded in approval.

The general simply nodded and headed for the door. "I want to be updated on his progress." He said.

He reached the door, and gave the pair a retreating glance. Then was gone.

"Don't worry about him. "he'll get used to you." Ribar helped the blue colored car stand. He nodded in reply.

"So... Klutch. Welcome to your new home." Ribar smiled at the now teenage-looking (after being rebuilt) mech.

Klutch smiled and nodded back.

"Home."

PRESENT MOMENT::

A squirrel chittered angrily from above him. He felt like shooting it for startling him so badly, but just swallowed it.

No, Indy didn't know Ribar was his creator. She thought he was just his teacher, nothing more.

and if he did show her any weakness, she would only use it against him later on. He had to be valiant, let nothing show, as he had been taught to do in a rough situation.

He had to keep his head about him.

He had to...

a twig snapped.

klutch turned and snapped off a shot.

a scream sounded.

Klutch rolled his optics and walked over to where Indy was squatting down trying to hide.

"Just what the hell do you think you're doing out here? I could have shot you!"

the red corvette femme just looked up back at him with a deer-in-the-headlights look.

So they had found the note. Something told her she was in trouble.

"Wel.. I.. uh... thought I'd go for a walk?" she tried.

Klutch snorted.

"Really. I don't suppose this had anything to do with it, does it?" he threw the datapad at her feet.

indy looked at it and gulped. "I...uh.. I though I would try and save him. You know, prove how much good I can do." she looked up at him. "I mean, I did save our trainer. I untied him and everything." she folded her arms. "I was even hot on the trail of whoever kidnapped him." she stated."

"Don't you mean your trainer." he replied, trying to sound like he didn't care.He started to walk away.

Klutch frowned. "He didn't get away. After you untied him, whoever else is out here shot him."

Indy got a suprised look on her face.

"They did?"

Klutch hoped his look didn't give him away. He nodded, trying to look like he didn't care.

He walked around towards where the troups were regathering near the helicopter. Indy re-folded her arms. "You're just gonna give up and go home?" she asked.

He cast a glance back at her over his shoulder.

"Yes."

"Well it sure seems like you don't care about finding whoever did this. But I'm going to go find out." she turned away. Klutch grabbed her arm and swung her around to face him. "It's obvious whoever did this is allready gone. The troups have scoured the area and found nothing. So you can quit pretending to be such a little heroine and come back to the base before the General boots you out on your ass." He snapped.

"Then you can go back to the Ark and tell all your little friends how you're such a failure"  
Indy snarled and pulled away. "I don't have to take orders from you." She poked one finger in the middle of his chest to get her point across. "For all I know, you havwe something to do with this and we would never know it."

Klutch glared daggers back at her. "How dare you say that!" he hissed.

"Yeah, well you sure don't seem to care about our trainer. Funny how the note showed up in my locker." she turned and stalked away. "Oh, and by the way, they were after YOU!" She yelled. Klutch clenched his fists angrily, optics flaring How DARE she call him a Decepticon. "I couldn't be a Decepticon because I care more about getting rid of them than dealing with spoiled brats like you!!!"

Indy stomped away and screamed back "Yeah! all you care about is yourself! You'd make a perfect Decepticon!!!"

The helicopter landed and Indy stomped over, plopping herself down in it's cargo bay, glaring at Klutch.

Klutch stomped over and sat down in the other helicopter, glaring back as the two took off. "That's what you think." he mumbled.

-------------------------

I'm sorry, that got just a little out of hand. I was trying to go with the original dialogue of where Indy says he would make a better Decepticon, but the original didn't have him get mad over it, and considering the circumstances, he would be mad at her for it.

And I was trying to add a little humor to it. I know Klutch as a cold, emotionless Decepticon hunter, and seeing him get his feathers all ruffled over a femme who's just as immature is hilarious to me. :-) 


End file.
